Uganda–Final Thoughts

The Uganda experience has been a center of my pondering in the three weeks since we returned. I wonder about the depth of their joy in the midst of deep poverty, injustice, and overall economic hopelessness. It is more than a superficial smile. It is a joy in the presence of Jesus. This is such a contrast to the American scene where cynicism reigns and any unfilled desire often leads to an angry response.  The difference seems to be the American entitlement and the African “normalcy” of death and disaster. Houses with electricity will have an indicator light so inhabitants will know the electricity is off so as not to use up the battery power unnecessarily. We dress down to show our casualness where they dress up to show that they are not bound by their poverty. The “big man” syndrome is in deep contrast to the American egalitarian.

Shamila’s dark slum house with the “local brew” seating with very drunk men immediately next to the tiny living space where girls and woman were ripe for abuse haunts me. Rebekah is not yet 2 but she needs a safe living space. But there is none. Rose’s tearful prayer request that her business would make some money rings in my spirit. She does not want a handout. She wants help and the dignity of work. Fred drives day and night to get his family out of the slum into a two room house with a yard. Running water is far beyond his hope. But even in their humble state, the hospitality was rich.

Hope Alive! Africa (http://www.hopealiveafrica.org/) is providing genuine help so people can live rather than a handout. Help is far harder and takes much longer than a handout which alleviates immediate problems but often creates dependency and promotes our internal Messiah complex and inflated sense of self.

The Rest of the Story

Ambrose did not get his government scholarship. He is praying that somewhere he will be able to find private funding for his desire to study electrical engineering. Contributions through Hope Alive! could be life long help to him and others like him. Catharine and the HA! staff exist to be a help to hard working students like him.

My cellulitis responded to the two weeks of antibiotics. I rejoice that I had a physician to diagnose and tell me what medicine would help and that I had plenty of funds to purchase them. Many of the folk there would have no such resources available. Disease and deformity and death are constant visitors.

Martin did get concrete help for his seriously damage eye. James (on the right) ended up going with him to the hospital to ensure the doctor really invested in his care. The pebble his weed eater had propelled into his eye had ruined the cornea and the underlying structures. There was no choice but to remove they eye. In his helplessness he had come to Hope Alive! his former employer because he had experienced the kindness of the Lord there.

As Catharine says, Hope is the confident, active expectation of good based on the character of God.

Uganda Last Days

We left Wednesday and Thursday, our last two days unscheduled, figuring that things would come up or that we’d need some rest time before we began the journey home. That turned out to be a very good decision. Most every moment was spent in personal conversations with World Venture missionaries flowing out of Tuesday’s teaching time. So Café Javas was Thursday’s meeting place.

It felt a bit weird to be in a place that could have been imported directly from South East Portland. I sat on the veranda with a great view of the garden below and of the new Hilton they are building.

The hotel dominates the skyline from most every angle and reeks  in rich luxury. It fascinated me for the sake of contrasts.

I got this picture beginning with a car wash – just a lot with poor men hand carrying water in jerry cans to wash cars making a few cents per car – then very nice nice buildings behind, and then the dominating hotel. The slum where Shamila and Rose live with Rebekah and Emmy is in another universe, just a kilometer away.

The conversations ranged from sharing life to wrestling with impossible challenges. Loved getting to know these amazing people and hearing their stories.

Wednesday evening was the second teaching time at Lugogo Baptist Church. We arrived early so I could spend time with the people. I was glad to see Emma again. He had impressed me with his positive spirit, deep love for Jesus and obvious intelligence.

I asked for his story about getting into the Hope Alive! Africa project. His story was almost too much to hear. He and his brother – maybe 8 and 9 – had been in their slum home, alone after the adults went to earn a few schillings. They heard a loud noise in the early morning, ran out to see bulldozers coming to raze all the houses in the area. Frantically the little boys dragged their few possessions out of the path of the bulldozers. Emma described their panic, what it felt like to see their home being destroyed, the impossible task to get things out, the blood flowing freely from the ripped skin of their small arms.

People contacted Hope Alive! and they came to help. A hired truck was there to get their meager possessions off the ground, but there was no place to go. Their mother went back to the village but the boys wanted to stay in the city so they could go to school. The ended up joining another family in their tiny slum home.

Such systemic injustice is common. There is a law that says if construction displaces people, the owner must help resettle the people. But a bribe to an official is all it takes to evade this responsibility. It happens often in the economic miracle of Africa. The economy progresses, a very good thing, but at the cost of lives of the poor and oppressed, a tragic thing.

 

The teaching time was a delight. Listening to stories for nearly three weeks gave me a better connection with the culture so I was able to make better application of the biblical principles. The people responded eagerly to my question and answer style and the discussion was animated.

 

Getting to know Pastor Dennis was a delight but a frustration because we had so little time to talk. His delight as I used my Bible projected to answer questions is a technique he will adopt, I think. He was going to a pastors’ conference focused on the nature of God, a most important question. So we were soon into intense Bible based discussion of our understanding of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a deep spirituality he showed. I wanted to spend a lot more time with him. Another trip.

Thursday evening meant packing. Catharine was t
raveling on the same flight, heading to a World Venture Summit and the last session of her doctor of ministry program. Pip’s polite request that he be allowed to go with was denied and we left for the long drive to Entebbe. Traffic was dense and the 90 minute trip took almost 2 1/2 hours. We made use of Catharine’s Platinum status to get a quick check in and spent some time in the KLM traveler’s lounge, a first for me.

The 11:45 pm departure meant the 8 hour flight to Amsterdam was almost all in the dark. I missed seeing the Sahara and the Mediterranean coast. But the Greek Islands shone out like pearls in the night. Three hours in Amsterdam and an 11 hour flight to Portland was blessedly uneventful if really long. My own bed  felt really good!

Uganda Tuesday

Doing the spiritual warfare training (resources here) with the World Venture missionaries (here) was an event I’d been looking forward to. We had met many of them already, enjoying the interactions with fascinating people. As I expected the session got deep fast with lots of interaction and immediate application. Of course tea and conversations followed with individuals asking very personal questions.

Sherry and I went to find Florence, the lady who is the care taker of the Hope Alive! Africa country office (in the background of the picture). We had enjoyed talking with her, seeing her delight in serving and making sure everything was clean and ready for use. As we shared stories of our children I was struck with the vast difference in lifestyle between rich Americans and a lady who lives in a slum. But we have a common love for children and Jesus.

We gave her a book mark, explaining that the wooden piece was the outline of our state of Oregon and the heart cut out in the middle was our commitment to love and pray for her. You would think we had given her the crown jewels! Then she knelt down in front of me and then in front of Sherry to express her gratitude. Fortunately I’d been warned so I didn’t reach to lift her up to alleviate my discomfort.

We went to a home visit to see Shamila and her family. We were welcomed into her house warmly. I was taken  aback to see a very drunk man laying in the front part of the tiny slum home. Then I remembered that her mother supported the family by being the dispenser of “home brew” for the people in the slum. There is a VERY strong pressure for young women to grant sexual favors to

men and to get pregnant. The narrative is “No man will accept you as a wife until you prove you can bear children.” It is a formula for abuse. Since her whole life is spent in the immediate vicinity of drunk men, it is no surprise that Shamila got pregnant. That means she has to leave school. But unlike many others, Shamila had the resources of Hope Alive! to help and redemption work kicked in. She went to live with Carol, the site supervisor and her husband as she delivered. There she saw first hand what marriage and family can be. Revolutionary. She is taking a year to raise Nimungu Emanuel (Emma) and her sister’s 2 year old, Rebekah, while she is in police training for a year.

Shamila woke Emma up from his nap and of course I soon had him in my lap. He just stared at me as if to say “what is this strange creature holding me?” Even as I smiled and talked with him, I felt very much the mzungu (Swahili for someone who wanders without purpose / someone constantly on the move. Now it is the general word for white person, people without family, village, or tribe.) I just felt the outsider trying to understand how one lives successfully. Emma got some lunch from Shamila and soon was smiling and enjoying us playing with him.

We went to Rose’s home which was back to back with Shamila’s. The difference was striking. Where Shamila’s was literally and metaphorically dark, Rose’s was filled with light. The results of a gospel life in the extreme economic poverty of the slum was overshadowed with the hope of Jesus. Her son, Stephen, a Hope Alive! project graduate is working in a high tech job and supporting his family. Rose bubbled with joy as we talked. This is where Shamila can find good support as she raises the children and her Mother tries to make money selling mangos in the street so she can stop serving local brew.

We had supper with Jay and Kait. She did a a short term as a nurse with Hope Alive! and decided to give her life to serving in Uganda. Then she met Jay, a godly fun physician who wanted to marry her. “Only if you come to Uganda,” she said. God overcame his initial lack of interest and they were married. Now his Indian ethnicity has given them wide open doors to work in this largely unreached powerful East African sub-community of professional and merchants. Listening to their story against the earlier time with Shamila highlighted the power of the gospel in the lowest and the highest strata’s of society.

Uganda Sunday Monday Julius and Grace

I was very much looking forward to seeing Julius and Grace Twongyeirwe. They have been in our home here while Julius was an M.Div. and D.Miss. student at Western so we had heard a lot about Proclamation Task (http://www.proctask.org) and its mission to train African pastors for effective Bible exposition focused ministry in a world where exposition is quite unusual, in part because there is no training or resources available.

Julius asked I preached at Berea Baptist on Sunday. The morning began with the the Bible study hour on the packed veranda of a local school. It was a nice day, but I wondered what would happen if it were a windy rainy day. Later during the service a wind gust blew the screen over which was a bit disruptive! The young men quickly tied the screen to the railing and all was fine after.

As I sat enjoying the leadership of the young man leading the study, I watched the primary school children from the boarding school struggling to get water from the tap in the yard. I wonder how many American children would do that with laughter and partnership as they were doing.

After church we went to a local eatery to have lunch. Abby found that they were doing free face painting so her brilliant personality came out delightfully! Isabelle is in university studying law and doing super well. She was the only first year student ever to make the finals of the mock trial. It was a delight to hear her heart for advocating for the powerless in Africa as well as leading the worship ministry at the church.

On Monday we went to their home in north east Kampala. When they bought the ground is was jungle. Grace’s Mom first cried and then was angry at Julius for taking her daughter there. Now it is a very nice compound with city all around. Grace adds to their income by raising 500 chickens for sale. She leads Shalom ministry which helps other pastors do such things so they can sustain their life while pastoring.

We drove 17 kilometers north of the Proclamation Task training center. Because it is located on top of a hill outside of the city, there were many witchcraft shrines there. Julius greeted the witchdoctors and told them that as they walked and prayed, it would disrupt their activities spiritually. All have moved now. Julius continues to invite them to the PT activities Smile

The building is quite large with four classrooms, a chapel and supporting living space and toilets. The roof is a recent addition. Now if they can get sufficient funds for windows and doors, they can keep the cows out and begin training activities. You can help!

Afternoon was Ugandan lunch and shopping at a shop in the African craft mall. One of Grace’s BSF leaders had a nice shop and we enjoy talking as we shopped.

Uganda Friday and Saturday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have been looking forward to spending time with David and Abby Kakeeto. They have founded A Perfect Injustice, a ministry to street kids in Kampala.

You can see some of what they do here or at their Facebook page here. They have a home where the boys can get off the street and live in a safe environment. They

have successfully brought more than 35 boys into their homes. What I didn’t know is that they also do home resettlements, reuniting street children with their biological families and communities. Since in Africa a person without a family and a tribe is lost, this is critically important. To date they have done more than 100 resettlements.

P4220016We met them for lunch in Old Kampala, close to the Gaddafi Mosque not far from their home. They offered to go to the American style coffee shop or K2, a local Ugandan hole in the wall restaurant. Of course we chose the latter. It was Sherry’s first taste of Ugandan fare. The yummy beef in g-nut sauce (ground nut, or peanut as we call it) came steamed in a banana leaf.

Labeled LunchThat went on top of the other items on the lunch plate. Matooke is a staple food. It’s a green banana which is mashed and steamed cooked. Posho, another starchy staple, is finely ground white corn flour which is mixed with boiling water until it gets stiff.  The others have common names, but different flavors. I topped mine off with fresh mango juice as we sat and talked for a couple of hours.

The only challenge was walking to the restaurant. This is NOT Portland where pedestrians have right of way. Rather they have the lowest level of priority. One of the few walk lights in all Kampala helped us cross the very busy main street. Most of the cars gave way for Sherry with her cane, but not so the bodas, the little motorcycles, which are the main form of public transportation.

Saturday was Dorothy’s wedding to David and the Watoto Central Church, a large downtown church with branches all over the Kampala as well as other cities. David is one of the leaders in small group ministry there. Dorothy is an orphan for whom Hope Alive! Africa has literally been a life saver. Dorothy is delightful but there were some difficult family dynamics with her aunts and cousins: Think Cinderella and you’ll be close.

P4230003We’d missed the “Introduction” which is the traditional wedding so we were at the big church wedding. I’d wondered what the Ugandan ceremony would be like. It turned out that the Anglican prayer book had influenced things so that it wasn’t all that different until the end when the extended family members were invited up to join the prayer. P4230009Then everyone was invited up to meet the couple. You don’t walk up of course. You dance up! One of the men held a a large basket where you could put money to help them get started. Big hugs were the norm.

The reception was later in the afternoon. We skipped it since listening to many speeches from family I didn’t know out weighed the interest in  the Ugandan dancing that would be a big part of the time.

I used the time to give solid reading the draft of Randy Alcorn’s new book, hand in Hand, which he graciously allowed me to comment on. It is his development of the age old issue of divine sovereignty and human freedom.